So long HD-DVD? Pioneer Launches PC-Based Blu-ray Disc Drives

It's no secret that Blu-Ray has gained major support in recent months, gaining momentum over HD-DVD.  Furthering the growth, Pioneer is releasing their first Blu-Ray Disc Drive for the PC.  The BDR-101A boast storage capacities of 25GB on a single disc.  Look for shipments to start in the first quarter of 2006.  The drive will burn at 2X while standard DVD-R/ Rs will record at 8x.

This first generation product will be targeted primarily to professional users and serious enthusiasts, generally the first to adopt new technology. In particular, content creators will depend on Blu-ray Disc writers to test and evaluate high definition consumer Blu-ray Disc titles during the authoring process before replication. The drive will come equipped with a data recording application to transfer digital files to Blu-ray Discs.